Exhibit honors the stories of Japanese American solidiers during World War II

From March 31 to April 11, the University of Hawai‘i – West O‘ahu Library will host Go for Broke: Japanese American Soldiers Fighting on Two Fronts, a traveling exhibit commemorating the role of Japanese American soldiers during World War II.

Go for Broke features photographs, oral history excerpts, and facsimiles of historic documents about the 100th, 442nd and 522nd units, and famed Military Intelligence Service. The exhibit was originally created in 1980 through the efforts of more than 100 Nisei (second generation Japanese American) veterans in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. It was originally shown at the Presidio of San Francisco and toured throughout the United States for nearly 10 years.

Go for Broke explains the impact of the Nisei soldiers’ war record on the postwar civil rights of Japanese Americans and how it contributed to the successful passing of House Resolution 442 that resulted in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Curated by veteran historian Eric Saul, whose Japanese American exhibits were featured at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, Go for Broke preserves the legacy of Japanese American soldiers’ World War II experience for generations to come.

Go for Broke is sponsored by the Nisei Veterans Legacy Center and will be on display on the second floor of the UH West O‘ahu Library from March 31 – April 11. The exhibit is free and open to the public. UH West O‘ahu Chancellor Rockne Freitas will untie a maile lei at the opening of the exhibit on Monday, March 31 at 10:30 a.m. followed by a brief overview from Curator Eric Saul.

Go for Broke will be on display at the Honolulu Hale (City Hall) Exhibition Hall from April 14-25 and at the Maui Nisei Veterans Memorial Center on Maui from May 1 – June 13 following its stay at the UH West O‘ahu Library.

UH West O‘ahu became a four-year, regional comprehensive university when it served its first class of freshmen in fall 2007. The University offers quality education, small classes and personalized attention at convenient locations. UH West O‘ahu serves approximately 2,400 students at its brand new, state-of-the-art campus that opened in the City of Kapolei in 2012. For more information, visit uhwo.hawaii.edu, twitter.com/uhwestoahu, facebook.com/uhwestoahu or call (808) 689-2800 or toll-free (866) 299-8656.

The Nisei Veterans Legacy Center seeks to preserve the history and legacy of Japanese American soldiers during World War II. For more information, call (808) 971-1060.

Eric Saul is the founder and executive director of Visas for Life and Institute for the Study of Rescue and Altruism in the Holocaust, with the mission to document a comprehensive history of the Holocaust. For more than 40 years, Saul curated a number of exhibits on the contribution of minorities to the US military. He is the co-author of The Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 (1982) and contributed to Go For Broke: The Story of the Japanese American Soldier in World War II (1981). He was coeditor of Yukiko Sugihara's memoir, Visas for Life (1995). He also authored Unlikely Liberators: The Story of Chiune Sugihara and Japanese Americans of the 522nd Field Artillery (1995). Saul is presently writing a new book on diplomatic rescue in World War II.